Maximum Instruments
by DontMessWithNinja
Summary: When Max and her flock meet the Shadowhunters, chaos ensues as they find that their worlds overlap in more ways than one. Sometimes, you just wish you were human...M/F, C/J


**Hi, all!**

**First off, I want to thank you for taking the time and opening this. It's great to be on a site where it's so easy to get constructive criticism. I love reviews (who doesn't?) and I try as hard as I can to read a reviewer's profile, reply to them, and check out some of their stories and review those too. **

**This is the rewrite of a story that I posted about a year ago by the same name (Maximum Instruments). If you read the last one and that's why you're here, then thanks. **

**MaxIn (the not-so-clever nickname I came up with for this fic) is actually my first story, as in, I've never even written fiction before. It takes place a few months after CoG and 2-3 years after MAX (screw FANG, I'm stickin' with the good stuff). Max, Iggy, and Fang are 16-17 and Nudge is 15-ish. **

**Please review positively, negatively, neutrally, or any other way you can think of. **

**Enjoy!**

Ch. 1- Trust Issues Doesn't Begin to Cover It

I was in an alley with Angel when the thing attacked us.

I can't elaborate. I didn't know what it was. All I knew for sure was that it was big (think of a Humvee) and smelled really bad. As in, worse-than-Gazzy's-sheets-when-he-does-his-laundry-for-once bad.

Think of the biggest octopus you can imagine while still staying within the confines of science. Add about five feet and loads of hideous, greenish boils on its skin. And the _eyes_. There were so many, about twenty ugly grey circles circling the creature's head. One look into the grey, lifeless holes and I knew that this thing had no soul.

For the first time in years, I was overcome by fear. I normally knew that I could beat any threat that tried to hurt me or my family. But I was up against something I'd never seen before. And it didn't help that I was a little out of practice. The Flock and I had been living the cushy high life in safe, food-stocked houses as we traveled the world educating people about global warming. I hadn't had my life threatened in months.

_I'm scared, Max. I can't get any thoughts from it, like Jeb and the Itex scientists. Is it a messed-up hybrid from the School? _Angel's voice resonated through my head. It was timid and frightened, and then I realized that maybe Angel was just as scared as I was.

_Ange, I want you to run as fast as you can to the alley. Then take off and go get the others, okay? _I looked over at her, and then glanced at the mouth of the alley, maybe sixty feet away. I knew that she could make it if she tried. I prayed that she would listen to me and not lapse back into the defiant six-year-old she was a few years ago.

When our eyes met, she bolted, tearing off her sweatshirt and yanking out her wings. She was about to take off when the creature went into action, moving so quickly that even my raptor vision momentarily blurred. Its tentacle wrapped around her ribcage, and my baby cried out as it forced her wings in awkwardly.

Then her screams began, loud and long and heart-piercing. Wherever its tentacles came into place, a thin purple liquid, runnier than water, seeped out onto her skin and clothes. I ran forward, expecting a sizzle and burn where the poison touched, but instead, it _froze._ Tiny icicles were forming on the seams of her tank top, easily visible against the red fabric. I couldn't imagine what it was doing to her skin.

_Max…_She thought wearily, forcing herself into my mind. _It stings…_Angel mentally slurred before cutting off, passed out.

I lunged forward, trying to get to my little girl. I dodged two of Octopussy's tendrils and whipped out my wings. While the monster's tentacles were flying about, a thin stream of the liquid got onto my wings. I now knew what Angel meant- the cold was paralyzing, remniscient of when we got stuck in that snow in Antarctica. I ignored the pain and continued fighting. Distracted by the sudden movement, it turned, confused. I was right behind it and about to deliver a fantastic roundhouse to the small of its back when a glowing knife was sticking out of _the very place that I was about to smash my foot_. I looked back at the source of the throw- a golden-haired young man, his arm still half in the air like he had just thrown something. Two other glowing knives were sticking out of his woven black belt.

I shook my head, knowing that I was hallucinating. A human couldn't have thrown that accurately unless they were, like, an assassin or something.

I took a closer look at my new savior. He was golden_._ That's the best way I can describe it. He was pretty lean, but it was evident in the way he stood that this guy was like us- he'd seen a lot, and been through even more. He reminded me of a lion the same way Fang reminded me of a panther.

But the most evident thing about him was his tattoos. They covered his skin, a matrix of swirling black tendrils that intersected to make designs and characters.

But the other thing was what shocked me- his _scars._ He had three times as many scars as he did tattoos. The covered all his visible flesh like a network of raised lace ironed onto him.

_What had this kid gone through? _I mean, call me the expert on abuse. The Flock and I had been tortured, tested and teased for years before we escaped the School with Jeb. We all had dozens of scars. But none of us had _that _many. The boy had to have hundreds. How did he survive being cut open so many times?

In short, it was really weird.

Behind him, a girl about my age came running up. She was beautiful, and even taller than I was. She looked like some kind of Latin princess. A few feet to her left a boy appeared, and he looked so like the girl that I was either still seeing things or they had to be siblings. Both had dark hair, tan skin, and the same black tattoos that the first boy had. All three stared at me. It took me a few seconds before I registered that they were staring at my wings. Oh, crap. Valencia told us that, although we were allowed to perform on tour dates around the world, we weren't supposed to show our wings to _anyone._ We had been doing pretty well for the last few years, only giving ourselves away to talk show hosts and a really, really late pizza delivery guy. I don't really think he recovered for weeks.

I hastily pulled them onto my back, feeling pain from the outer feathers where the poison hit, and ran over to pick up Angel, now unconscious on the ground. I looked back to see the girl running towards me, while her brother and Golden Boy seemed to talk so quietly I couldn't hear them walking up behind her.

As they got within a few feet of me, I heard the steady breathing and turned around to see the dark-haired boy right behind me, staring in wonder. The other two, about three yards behind, stopped their conversation and raised their heads towards Angel and me on the ground.

The girl spoke.

"What are you? Some kind of seelie-human hybrid or something? Or an angel? Jace, what does an angel look like?" I knew she must have been referring to the wings, but as she turned her head to the knife-throwing assassin-guy, I sat in confusion about what a _seelie _was. And the way she said "human" unsettled me- she spoke as if she wasn't one.

The boy, evidently called Jace, grinned.

"Nah," his smile got even wider. "Angels are bigger. And they're old-looking guys, not pretty girls."

"Jace, I'll take this time to remind you that you have a girlfriend, as you have for the last three months. By the Angel, you're practically married. Now what you _think _about other girls is your own business, but I suggest that if you'd like to still be able to procreate then you don't say anything like that in front of Clary."

He looked at her, his smile gone. The other boy still seemed incapable of saying anything, he just kinda stared.

I jumped up awkwardly, with Angel limp in my arms. I had to get her to a doctor fast. I muttered an awkward farewell along the lines of "um, bye," and turned around to take off home when I stopped in my tracks at what was in front of me.

Or rather, what _wasn't _in front of me. The alley was blank. No trace to show that I had just almost gotten _killed. _Zero, zip, zulch.

The trio behind me seemed to correctly interpret my hesitation.

"Wondering where it went?" John or James or whatever-the-hell-his-name-was asked. He didn't wait for a reply. "It returned to its home dimension. That's what they always do."

"_Jace_," the girl seethed. "Do you really need to tell her that?"

"Oh, yeah, Izzy, because it turned out so badly the last time I told someone who could see us."

I was officially lost.

Finally, the other boy spoke up. "Jace," he called, "that was, like, a one-in-a-million chance. Chances are, this girl doesn't have angel blood and isn't the daughter of an ex-Circle member."

"Or maybe she is, and this time she'll _really _be my sister."

'Izzy' piped up. She smiled at me warmly, her eyes full of pure condescending care. "I'm sorry we scared you. But Jace is right. You've got to come with us, that little girl got hurt."

I looked down at Angel, whose crystal blue eyes were glazed over as she looked up at me weakly. I felt my heart squeeze. Dark purple circles were beginning to form under her eyes.

I didn't comply. Let's just say that I don't like being bossed around. Instead, I turned around, ran as far as the alley would allow (about eight feet) and took off.

Or I tried. In reality, my balance was thrown off by Angel's weight and by the fact that there were thick layers of ice on the edges of my wings. I fell to the ground, catching myself before I hit the asphalt. I looked up and turned around, back to Izzy, Jace, and the other boy.

The girl turned but kept looking at us, obviously expecting me to follow. Her hips swayed as she put one high-heeled black boot in front of another and began walking towards the street.

I didn't know what to do. On one hand, these three could be working for Itex, and came to put me back in a dog crate sized for a golden retriever. On the other, I wasn't sure if I could outrun them and I definitely couldn't fly away. I'd normally pull out my mad Max fighting skills, but I didn't want Blondie's other knives to end up in _me._

And then I made what could possibly turn out to be the stupidest decision of my freakish, seventeen-year-long mutant life: I followed.

As we turned onto the sidewalk and started forward, I noticed that no other pedestrian seemed to notice us. Even when they looked in our direction, their gazes seemed to be focused on something behind us. Did Itex create technology to make people invisible?

But then again, there probably wasn't anything advanced or supernatural about it at all. This was New York- the people here had probably seen a lot worse. Even so, I would have expected three badass-looking teens accompanying a girl with ripped clothes holding an eight-year-old who looked _dead_ would have garnered at least a bit of attention.

They kept up a brisk pace that would have been difficult to keep up with had I been a normal human. They walked side by side, but due to the foot traffic around them I was forced to walk behind them. Which pissed me off. A lot.

As they rounded a corner, a huge Gothic cathedral loomed up about thirty yards ahead. Even around the high-rise buildings of the Big Apple, it still looked intimidating.

The fast pace was kept up right through the small courtyard of the cathedral and into the interior. I barely had time to look around before a sharp left was made, into an elevator freakishly resembling a bronze birdcage. I had a momentary flash of panic when the birdcage dropped a few inches and creaked until it started slowly moving upward.

Then I got really scared when, after only moving about two yards, the elevator stopped.

"Damn rusty cogs," the girl muttered, kicking out at the base of the elevator while twisting her hair into a long braid. After more creaking, the lift started to move again and a few seconds later we were stepping out into a beautiful entry hall.

"Jace? Jace, is that you?" A girl's voice came from a nearby door, followed by the speaker, a teen my age with bright red hair framing a pretty, freckled face. She was also holding a steak knife, upright and ready to throw it.

I stiffened, rolling my weight forward onto the balls of my heels so that I could lunge away quickly.

There was no need. Once she had seen the girl, who was standing closest to her, the knife relaxed in her hand and her eyebrows pulled back into a more relaxed position. Then they furrowed as her expression changed to one of anger.

"Where the hell have you been? One minute I'm doing speed training with Alec, then when I get out of the shower everyone's gone, taking all three seraphim out of my room and leaving behind a note that says _there's a Mala on Broadway, see you in a bit, love Jace, Alec, and Izzy_! I've been terrified!" Some of her anger seemed to leave with her rant. She turned to me.

"I'm sorry about that. Hi, I'm Clary. Are you a werewolf?"

"You mean an Eraser?" I asked.

A twitch of confusion in her face passed. She opened her mouth to speak until Jace interpolated. He looked at her.

"We're not sure."

The look of confusion was back, only more pronounced. "You're not sure?" she repeated back, slowly, as if saying the words with less speed could give them more sense. He responded with a breakdown of what happened.

"We followed the Sensor reading to a Mala demon in an alley off of Broadway. Then she was there, with that little girl already passed out from its venom. I killed it, but she had already gotten hit in her-" this is where he swallowed and glanced at me before continuing, "-her wings. Iz said we should take her back with us, and Alec agreed."

"Wings?" Clary's response seemed adequate.

The other boy, who I assumed to be Alec, nodded, finally finding his vocal chords. "Wings. Not like Seelie wings, like bird wings. Feathers and everything." He flapped his arm feebly for emphasis.

The room settled into an awkward silence. The girl called Izzy raised a finger and curled it in, beckoning me as she started down the hall. She flashed a smile and introduced herself as Isabelle.

"We're going to the infirmary now. We have a few poultices for those ice burns." She made another unnecessary smile and down several hallways until she reached a large door, pushing it open to show what looked like a well-decorated hospital, with heavy drapes able to be pulled around each individual room for privacy. She instructed me to put Angel down on a bed and she walked into a small storage room, returning with a large spherical bottle with a deep red liquid inside. She poured a small amount onto a rag in her other hand and started to apply it to Angel, smoothly running the cloth over her skin.

When she was done with Angel, she walked over me and stopped.

"Pull out your wings." She directed. I slowly unfolded them from my back and watched her the entire time. If my instincts were wrong and she was an enemy, my actions would provide a fantastic opportunity to do me some serious damage.

_Max, trust them._

Voice? Are you back?

The Voice was the annoying wannabe-mountain guru in my mind. Appearing only when I was in some trouble, I hadn't heard from it in about two years, which was how long it had been since the last attempt on my life. Its appearance was surprising.

I decided to follow its advice and I didn't jerk away when the palm of her hand touched my feathers. I watched her dab the cinnamon-smelling mystery liquid to the appendage but it took a second or two for the neurons to make their way to my brain. It was a semi-unpleasant feeling, a tingling warmth much like when your foot falls asleep.

When she was done, Isabelle looked back at me. "Let's go back to Jace and Alec," she said, "they're waiting for us in the library."

"What about Angel?" I asked. "Will she be okay?"

Isabelle looked at me in what I assumed to be a reassuring expression. "Yes, she'll be fine, but she got hit pretty badly. It'll take a few hours, and she'll be asleep for most of it. I suggest you come with me, Jace isn't known for his patience."

I followed Isabelle out the door, where a fluffy blue cat was waiting for us. Hm. I didn't know cats came in blue.

We went back down more identical-looking hallways, passing door after dark wood door. Isabelle, the cat and I finally reached a door towards the end of a hall and entered. The room was beautiful. Mahogany bookcases lined the walls and floors. A section in one corner of the huge room was dedicated to seating, with multiple leather chairs and sofas next to a fire that burned without any wood that I could see. Isabelle and I walked straight back to that area.

The Shadowhunters were already there waiting for us.

**Hope you liked it! This chapter was looong, at least for my standards, and expect future chaps to be about this length or a bit shorter. **

**I used to be a really fast writer, but I updated infrequently due to my laziness and lack of enthusiasm for FF. Now, my writing style has developed a fair amount and it now takes about two to four hours to write something of this length, depending on how distracted I get. Part of the reason this took so long was because my brother inadvertently deleted my first few pages of work and I had to rewrite from scratch. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**-DMWN **


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